The present disclosure relates to electrical power systems, and more particularly to an electrical power system of a vehicle that can provide power to a power grid external to the vehicle.
Military bases often have a fleet of vehicles, such as armored tactical ground vehicles. In many instances, those vehicles are not on missions for the majority of their life. As more of those vehicles adopt hybrid and range-extended electrical vehicle architectures, it has been proposed use such vehicles to power external loads, such as other vehicles in a vehicle-two-vehicle (V2V) arrangement and/or a power grid in a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) arrangement. In particular, a V2G arrangement is proposed to integrate the vehicle's power generating resources into a small power grid known as a “microgrid.”
A microgrid is a localized grouping of electricity sources and loads that can function autonomously from a macrogrid. In the case of some military bases, such as “contingency” military bases which may be set up for short term use, a macrogrid may not be present at all. Using a V2G arrangement to power a microgrid has been proposed to reduce the fuel consumption and/or engine size of standalone generators operating at such military bases.